Going After It

A few weeks ago, I had a long conversation with my mother  . . .she has notice somethings (mood, behaviors) and they were causing her to worry.  During this conversation, she told me that she had always admired me.

“What?”  I responded.

“I’ve always admired you!  The way you go after things.  You decide what you want and then you pursue it.”

I was really surprised to hear this from my mother.  She talked about how head strong I was growing up.  If I wanted something, I went after it.  I devoted all of my energy toward it.  I pursued it with great tenacity.   I went against the grain.  I challenged the status quo.

If you had asked me prior to this conversation, if I was that girl, I would have denied it.  I had not seen myself as being THAT strong.  Or strong willed.  I have always magnified my weaknesses. . . maybe, in my mind’s eye, I saw my weaknesses and it manifested itself in hardwork to overcome them.  As I look back, I was that way with many things, I wanted desperately to be a cheerleader, I worked hard at learning to cartwheel and split. . . I wanted to be in the choir, I worked hard at singing on pitch and learning the music and let’s not even discuss show choir and the many hours I spent in the mirror dancing and practicing.    When it came time for me to apply to college, I was methodical about it, I spent time writing schools for information, making lists and comparing (the internet had not taken root back then).  So, I guess I was very much a go getter!

She brought this into the conversation because she was confused at my recent moodiness (and here).  I was saying I wanted to do somethings, but the reality was that I was doing NOTHING to get them.  What had happened to my fire?  Who knows?  What I do know is that anything I have ever wanted to do, I have pursued it with everything that was in me.  Yes, there were many, many crushing moments, but they never kept me down.  I picked myself up, set a new goal and went after it.

I keep thinking, when we become adults, do we get caught up in the mundaness of paying the bills and working, that we forget to dream? Or even abandon our dreams?  Or do we let life’s issues and other people kill our dreams.  Whatever it is, I will not let it happen to me anymore.  In my last years of college, my dream was to become a teacher.  A great teacher.  I had dreams of traveling overseas, seeing the world. . .It’s time to breathe new life into these dreams. . . I remember these dreams . . .my bff remembers me making them . . .

• Go overseas to teach
• Complete an Ed.S. or Ph.D.
• Write a book

So, the first part of this journey is to broaden my teaching experience, i.e. GET A NEW JOB.  For the last few hours, I’ve been working on my resume. I’ll begin applying to jobs in the next few weeks, specifically to the Department of Defense because they have schools all over the world.  No matter the what, I have to leave my city in order for my journey to begin.

If you’re a reader of this, here is how you can help me (yep, I’m telling you what I need from you).

• Any job postings that you see, especially for things overseas, forward them to me.
• Review my resume*and digital portfolio (not up yet, but coming in the next week).
• Remind me of my goals when I start to whine and complain and vent.

*My you can click on my the link  to read my resume.  However, it is password protected.  The password is my real name-first name only.  I’m sorry that I can’t give it to everyone, but ya’ll know how that goes.  You may email me privately for access, but I can’t guarantee that I’ll give it.    Secondly, this is the condensed version of my resume.  It was over two pages long with all of my previous work experiences and all of that, but upon the suggestion of a friend, I condensed it  and will have a separate CV with all of those specific details in my online portfolio.  Thanks in advance for suggestions, comments and constructive feedback.